1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a method of translating machine readable information from one national language to another national language, and more particularly to a method of automatically enabling the translation of machine readable information by automatically adding to each text statement of the machine readable information an appropriate number of spaces required to contain the translation of the text statement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Every year, new markets open outside the United States for computer hardware and software products. Competition and such markets has become fierce. To compete in the increasingly important global markets, it is necessary to be able to transform software written in the United States for use in other countries.
One of the clearest differences between versions of the same product in various countries is seen in the text displayed on the computer display screen. This text, which includes messages, prompts, user keyboard input, help information, menus, and the like, is called machine readable information. The translation of machine readable information from one national language to another is a time consuming and expensive task.
The way machine readable information is packaged can make a big difference in the time and money necessary to implement a national language version of a product. For example, all machine readable information should be separate from any executable code. If the product requires several disks, ideally all of the machine readable information should be on one disk. This allows each country to change and produce only one disk. By isolating the machine readable information from the code, translation and code development can occur simultaneously. Thereby allowing the national language product to get to market more quickly. Isolation also protects the code from being accidentally changed by the translators.
Most languages require more space (length in bytes) than English to communicate the same information. This fact leads to problems in presentation of the machine readable information on the screen. For example, in graphical user interfaces, which consist of a combination of text and graphic information presented on the screen, labels for various graphical objects, such as push buttons and the like, are in fields. When the developer designs the screen, the objects are positioned in an aesthetically pleasing way. When the text labels are translated, there usually is not enough space in the field created by the designer of the graphical interface to contain the translation. Thus, the text is typically truncated. After the translation, the developer must redesign the screen so that the translated machine readable text fits in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Such redesign is fraught with problems, including increased development cycle time and the possible introduction of errors into the code.
Currently, developers leave expansion space in the English text so that they can redesign the screen before the text is translated. Since no language is the longest, the addition of expansion space provides every country with a worst case, which means that after the translation is completed, the developer may need to further tailor the screen. A rule of thumb is that fields of one to ten bytes in length can have one hundred to two hundred percent expansion. For an eight byte field, one developer could leave sixteen bytes and another twenty-four bytes. Most U.S. developers would prefer to leave no expansion space, but in order for their product to be translated they must.